Okay, I tried to post a reflection on today's readings. It was going well and then, due to being subject to some kind of parental controls, I lost it all. I don't like this reboot as much as what I was originally writing. But, in a spirit of detachment for the sake equinamity, it will have to do.
True freedom, according to Jesus, means not getting bogged down with things or even with people. It's fine to have things. You surely need some things. But having is different from possessing. The same goes for relationships. Being made in the image of God, we are relational. We need people. Hence, relationships are essential to being human, to flourshing. By contrast, to possess things or people is to cling to them tightly, to depend on them, to place your trust, that is, your hope, in them.
As a Christian, you should seek to live simply. Don't seek to possess more than you need. In addition to being kind and caring, be prudent and circumspect in your relations with others. Of course, be generous with what you have, even with those things you need because others need these things, too. This extends to being generous with yourself for the sake of others. It is by living simply and generously that you place your trust, your hope, in God.
What is death if not the ultimate entrusting of yourself to God? This is what it means when, in the Church's Funeral Rites, we "commend" the deceased to God. I can't think of a more vivid example of this than the tombs of the Pharaohs, which were filled with things these rulers were thought to want and need for eternity. I know this is to get things wrong vis-a-vis the metaphysics of ancient Egyptian religion, but to make my point with hyperbole, none of the things entombed with the bodies of the Pharoahs seem to have been used.
Much the same can be said of your relationships with people, even those closest to you, maybe particularly those closest to you. What Jesus means by "hate" in today's Gospel is not what we typically mean when we use the word, infused as it is with negativity and even violence. Rather, he is talking about who has the priority, who comes first. Jesus urges you to acknowledge your dependence on and place your trust in God. He is talking about making your relationship with God your first priority.
Our relationships, particularly those that are most intimate, often take first priority in our lives. Among other things, this places enormous pressure on those with whom you are in relationship. This also sets you up for disappointment, either ultimately or perpetually.
It's easy to conflate Jesus' Two Great Commandments. While inextricably bound together, love of God and love of neighbor must be distinguished one from the other. Of course, as scripture teaches, you can't say "I love God" and at the same time hate- in the sense we use this word- your neighbor (1 John 4:20). Jesus is saying, "Put God first. Place your trust in God, not in people or things." Given enough time, everyone will let you down, even if it's only when s/he dies.
We often use the phrase, usually about doing good things, "without counting the cost." In today's Gospel, Jesus, using two easy-to-grasp parables, tells us exactly the opposite. He urges anyone who would follow him to carefully and fully count the cost.
It's hard to trust God, especially when your life isn't going very well, or even if just not as swimmingly as you think it should going. But the cost of following Jesus is journeying with him to the cross. The Lord wants you to be clear that following him is absolutely not about living your best life now. It isn't about being rich, driving a great car, wearing great clothes, taking awesome vacations, etc. Look, for most people, life is a vail of tears no matter what. Buddha was right: to live is to suffer. The question becomes, is there any point to it?
In the first of the two parables, Jesus urges would-be followers to count the cost to have the resources to finish. To reverse the first sentence of the previous paragraph: It's easy to "trust" God when everything is going great. But what if you lost everything tomorrow? Someday, you will lose it all, guaranteed. Jesus teaches time and again that wealth and the desire for wealth are the biggest obstacles to entering God's kingdom. It is genuinely Christian logic to assert that you gain resources by refursing to possess anything or anyone. Detatchment is essential.
Our Collect for this Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, after acknowledging that God has redeemed us and, through Christ by the power of the Spirit, has adopted us as "beloved sons and daughters," we ask him to "look graciously upon us" so that we "may receive true freedom." Not only in our Gospel, but in our reading, taken from that unique text, Saint Paul's Letter to Philemon, we hear about what true freedom is.
Freedom, at least in Christian terms, is not essentially about resisting external constraints. In other words, freedom is not freedom from. Rather, freedom is for following Christ. For Christians, genuine freedom can never be taken away, not even by death. Christ's resurrection shows us that love is stronger than death. Only love liberates. God is love.
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